Bonding Diary – Tibby and Iris

[Leeza]

Hi, everyone!

Iris has been part of the household for almost two weeks now. She’s definitely quite shy, but she’s rapidly improving. She’s letting us pet her more and more often, spends less time in her stressed, hunched up, head-on-the-ground position, and she’s even letting me pick her up without too much fuss. Obviously, she hasn’t fully adjusted to life here, but if she’s pining for comfort, no harm in introducing her to Tibby now?

Personalities: Iris – (1 to 1.5 years old, female, spayed) despite being shy, she is very inquisitive and excited to explore more. Her quick improvement makes me think that she is craving social interaction, but didn’t have much of it in the past. She has never nipped in the short time I’ve known her. Tibby – (7 years old, male, neutered) very laid back. He isn’t even afraid of dogs barking or the vacuum cleaner. Until we brought him to the shelter to find a friend, I had no idea whether he would be a dominant or submissive rabbit.

I did bring Tibby with me to the local shelter to have him pick his own buddy. To be honest, he treated all of three of the bunnies that I put him with the same, which was to mount all of them. Iris was the one who was most interested in Tibby. At that point, my partner had already fallen for Iris hard, and I couldn’t see any obvious reasons that they couldn’t be compatible, so we brought her home.

I’ve let them have more pre-bonding contact than really recommended. I guess I kind of wanted to know where they were at and what I’m dealing with. Their cages are in the same room, but several feet from each other, and they are able to see each other if they are both in certain spots within their cages. No aggressive responses whatsoever. The only behavioural change I’ve noticed from Tibby is that he’s more cuddly to me than usual (Oh darn. Cuddly bunnies are the worst ). Under close supervision, I divided the run space in two and put one bunny on either side. They checked each other out, but no aggressive behaviours. I put their greens very close to the bars on either side, and they shared a pile with no problems. They are comfortable lying down next to the bars of their divider, but not when the other is super near. There is also a litterbox in the hallway that they have both used. The other night, I put each bun in the other’s cage all night and all of today. They both decided to relax their litterbox habits. Iris moreso than Tibby. Sigh.

 

Day 1

So last night, I decided to let them have their first bonding session. I set up a 2×1 panel in the washroom with the X pen (one side covered with a towel so I could hide behind it) and placed in it a bowl of water (30 Celsius today – yikes!) and some hay. Iris went in first, and then Tibby. Tibby mounted her several times. I pulled him off a few times when he mounted directly on her face or when it had gone on for quite a while and she started struggling. Eventually, the mounting stopped and they ignored each other on opposite sides of the pen. I reduced the area to 1×1, and the mounting began again. After a couple goes, Tibby started eating hay and grooming himself, and after several minutes, Iris began to do the same, taking turns grooming themselves next to each other. Tibby mounted her every so often, but for a shorter time period each time. He also very quickly presented himself for grooming a few times and give her ears a single lick, but Iris didn’t give in. I put a little bit of banana on each of their heads, and while Tibby gobbled it off of Iris right away, Iris ignored the banana on his head. I fed them their greens, no issues. Tibby stomped once when the greens were gone, but that might have been a demand at me to bring more. Some more hay munching, more self grooming. And then after maybe half an hour, Iris began to clean the banana off of Tibby! Then they sat/breadloafed nose-to-rump. As I was about to put them away, Iris groomed Tibby’s head and then presented herself for groomings. The first time she did this, Tibby mounted her, and the second time, he ignored her, and they had a staring stand off. At that point, I really had to go to bed, so I ended the session by placing them cheek to cheek and petting them for a few minutes. I wish I could have kept them together for a little longer to see how they would end their staring contest. The entire session was about 3 hours long.

Pretty good start, I think! I’m thinking that for their next session, I might start by putting them on the washing machine for a little while  and then putting them in their shared litterbox, closed off by the X pen. Hopefully, I’ll see some more grooming without needing the banana.

 

Comments, concerns, suggestions welcome! Thanks for reading

[LongEaredLions]

Many people here would LOVE cuddly bunnies!
Sounds like it is going very well! Keep updating, I think they should be bonded in no time!

[Leeza]

*sigh* I meant to update every day. Brief summary!

Day 2:
The next day, I set the space up like this:

So that they’d be forced to acknowledge each other. Neither one wanted to get out of the litterbox. Iris went in first, then added a Tibby! After quite a bit of mounting from Tibby to Iris, they ended up like this: (Iris is the smaller white female lionhead with black “freckles,” and Tibby is the slightly larger white male rabbit, some sort of bunny mutt, with a greyish face and ears)

Iris wants kisses! But Tibby didn’t want to give any. (I was trying to not let them see me by hiding behind the door. I don’t think I fooled them, though). After a couple hours, nothing major transpired, so I moved them into the hallway and gave them some toys.

In this set up, they mostly ignored each other. They weren’t afraid to be in the litterbox together. A few times, Tibby approached Iris from behind like he was thinking about mounting her, but she ran away from him and he didn’t bother following.

Then I fed them their veggies, no problems.

They were together for about 10 hours.

[Leeza]

(Breaking up the post in fear that my browser will time out or I’ll exceed some sort of file size per post limit)

Day 4?

Iris started giving Tibby kisses more frequently

Pretty blurry, but the grooming sessions weren’t lasting very long at this point. Iris seems to be a pretty rough groomer! Tibby has a little bald spot on his head now in the place she likes to groom him. Since they were doing so well, I doubled the size of their run space. Nothing really changed much in their behaviour.

Veggie time!

On this day, they were together for about 12 hours.

[Leeza]

The next day, I expanded their space a little bit more to include the cage that they are to share and that Iris had been living in since we brought her home (I’m also placing an Xpen around the cage to add more floor space. I know the cage is too small for two buns on its own). Tibby made himself riiiight at home, and Iris didn’t care that he was there.
Sharing the litterbox in the cage.

That night, I had Tibby in the Xpen right next to the cage where Iris was staying (I slept nearby on the couch).

The night after that, I had the cage door open to let them mingle at night (Still the couch for me), and since then, I haven’t separated them.

Over the next few days, we noticed that they began to spend more and more time together, even though we kept them in the larger run space. On day 5 or 6, Tibby groomed Iris for the first time! (that we saw) He only grooms her for a few seconds, even though she spends quite a bit of time shoving her head under him, trying to get him to groom her. It doesn’t feel to me like a move for dominance, since Tibby has made it clear that he is the dominant one. Could be wrong, of course

Cute antics included Iris trying to steal food right out of the inside of Tibby’s mouth! As in, the food was already completely in his mouth, and as he was chewing it, she pressed her mouth against his and tried to somehow steal some. Ridiculous  Tibby didn’t act like it bothered him at all. Also now, when Iris gets scared of a noise, she will often hide behind Tibby and bury her head in his side.

I had a very brief moment of tension yesterday at veggie time. Iris boxed Tibby a single time when the veggies ran out. He didn’t react at all, and she stopped being aggressive immediately, but I’ll keep my eye on that in the future.

They’ve both felt comfortable enough with each other to flop while the other was nearby, getting closer to each other each day.
And finally tonight….

Snuggles!! <3

Unfortunately, the poop wars have begun in earnest as of 2 days ago. It’s everywhere on the floor in the morning! Hopefully they will stop soon. If not… well, I just got a new vacuum, so that’s good…

[Author]

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